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Nearly 664,000 ballots were cast in Bexar County during Tuesday's midterm election, representing around 50% of the county’s 1.3 million registered voters.
The Bexar County Elections Department reports the turnout reflects residents voting early, by mail, or on Election Day.
This comes after early voting across Bexar County reached record highs, with around 39% of the county’s registered voters casting an early ballot. The Elections Department reported more than 527,000 ballots were cast in-person and by mail ahead of Election Day this year— the largest voting turnout for a midterm election in the county’s history.
“It goes to show that the voters of Bexar County are serious,” said Bexar County Elections Administrator Michelle Carew during an update early Tuesday. “They want their vote to count and they want some change.”
Carew said Tuesday that voting ran smoothly at the start of election day — all 302 voting locations across the county opened on time and there had been no issues reported across polls.
The Department of Justice announced Bexar County was among seven Texas counties that received federal election monitors to observe voting and compliance with election laws. Carew said in an update that the monitors had been quiet as voters cast their vote, with only one instance of feedback.
By Tuesday mid-afternoon, voters were casting ballots at a pace of more than 10,000 an hour.
“We're super proud of our numbers at the rate that we've been going with them,” Carew said. “When I first started this job, they said, ‘Increase voter turnout.’ I think that's what we're seeing now.”
Voter turnout rose this year compared to the 2022 midterm election, which sat at around 44%. The overall turnout this year was shy of the more than 759,000 ballots cast during the 2024 presidential election.
The spike in civic participation came as voters across Texas voted for change. Democrats swept statewide and local races — flipping a state that had been shut out for more than three decades.
